Dartmouth has received a $50 million gift the largest donation in the College's 240-year history from an anonymous family to be used to construct the proposed Visual Arts Center on the south end of campus. Construction on the project is now slated to begin in 2010, the College's Board of Trustees announced on Friday.
The Board also announced that it will move forward with elections for two vacant alumni trustee seats, ending a previous "freeze" on the replacement of the Board's alumni-elected members.
The two vacant seats were previously held by trustee Michael Chu '68 and Todd Zywicki '88. Chu has served his second and final term, while Zywicki was not reelected to a second term, a stark break from past precedent in which reelections were usually pro forma.
The decision to move forward with elections comes a month after the College's alumni voted to approve an amendment to the Association of Alumni constitution that reformed procedures for the election of alumni to the Board. The Board had previously postponed the elections in response to the Association's 2007 lawsuit against the College, and had threatened to take over trustee elections if the amendment did not pass.
Association President John Mathias '69 said in a previous interview with The Dartmouth that further reforms, including an effort to address campaign finance, would be the "highest item" on the Association's agenda after the voting period for the amendment.
"No determination has been made other than [campaign finance reform] will be studied and thought about and the place it will happen within the Dartmouth community is the [Association] executives," Board Chairman Ed Haldeman '70 told The Dartmouth on Friday.
The Board also approved two new charter trustees on Friday, Denise Dupre '80 and William Helman '80, who will succeed current charter trustee Russell Carson '65 and Karen Francis '84. Both Carson and Francis will step down from the Board this month.
Haldeman said that the anonymous family wanted to make its contribution during College President James Wright's tenure, which officially ends June 30.
"[The fact that] in this environment, a family was able and willing to make this commitment, speaks to a love of Dartmouth and feelings they have about the condition of institution," Haldeman said.
Wright, in an interview with The Dartmouth, said college fundraising has lagged this year because of the ongoing global recession, but that Dartmouth has done well because of support from alumni.
"The generous gift will enable us to do something we've been talking about for a lot of years so I'm delighted about that," Wright said.
Friday's gift is part of the College's ongoing capital campaign, which has now received $1.217 billion in gifts and commitments. The campaign aims to raise $1.3 billion by the end of 2009.
